Soft economy making it tough for teen-agers to land summer jobs in Western Mass.

Photo by John Suchocki / The RepublicanLisa K. Motroni, 18, of South Hadley, greets Tracy E. Zeiner and her son, Weston G. Zeiner during their visit to Grynn & Barrett Studios in Holyoke today. This is Motroni's second year working at the studio, where she meets, greets and lends customers a helping hand. The Zeiners, from Granby, Conn., had come to have Weston's senior portraits taken.

It's her job. As a greeter at the studio, she meets soon-to-be high school seniors and their parents, takes the clothes they've brought for senior portraits to a closet that's been set aside for them and gets the teens situated at a check-in desk. On rainy days, she meets them at their cars with an umbrella so the girls' glamour-ready hair doesn't get messy.

"All set?," she said to a teen who was on her way out this morning. "Did you have a good time?"

She earns $8.50 an hour, 50 cents more than the minimum wage, during a season Northeastern University researchers call the worst summer since the end of World War II for youth to find employment.

"I'm off to college," said Motroni, a recent graduate of South Hadley High School who is headed to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the fall. "So I'm saving a lot right now."

A soft economy is making it tough for teens like Motroni to get summer work.

Kathryn A. Kirby, youth employment coordinator for the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, said demand for state funded summer jobs in the YouthWorks program has far outstripped supply. Massachusetts Career Development Institute in Springfield received funding for 250 jobs earmarked for underprivileged youth, but had 1,000 applications.

The city of Holyoke had 200 people apply for 93 YouthWorks jobs and Valley Opportunity Council in Chicopee had 100 teens apply for 48 slots in the state-funded program.

Gladys Lebaron-Maritinez is the youth employment coordinator at CareerPoint. She said between CareerPoint, The Boys and Girls Club and the city of Holyoke, there is funding for about 174 youth jobs in Holyoke.

"We've probably had 500 people apply and they are still coming," Lebaron-Perez said. "They are still coming every day."

YouthWorks teens make $8 an hour. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds work 20 hours a week and 16- to 21-year-olds work 30 hours a week for six weeks, according to MCDI.

Motroni had a door opened for her. Her aunt works at Grynn & Barrett.

Motroni has been at the studio for two summers and admits she had trouble finding part-time work after school in November when her seasonal job at the studio ended. She eventually got hired as a cashier at Dock Sider Restaurant in South Hadley. She still works there at night, after the studio.

To understand the situation, David C. Gadaire, executive director of CareerPoint, a job center in Holyoke, said all somebody has to do is walk into a McDonald's restaurant and see people with gray hair working the counter.

"That's a picture of the times," Gadaire said. "There are people who don't have the money to retire like they thought they would," he said. "Other people have lost jobs and are looking for anything just to put food on the table."

Employers are more apt to hire an older worker, believing them to be more reliable and diligent, Gadaire said. So once those older workers start taking jobs that once went to high-schoolers, the teens get squeezed out in part because of restriction on how late they can work and the equipment they can use.

At FutureWorks, the career center in Springfield, the total number of jobs - full-time, part-time seasonal - was down 37 percent in May compared with April and down 6 percent in May compared with the previous May. The average wage at hire for all jobs was down $1.49 to $11.44 an hour, another measure of how few jobs are out there.

Universal Plastics in Holyoke hires at least one teen for the summer each year.

"One of the benefits, in our view, is that it gets some of these kids exposed to manufacturing, which is something they might not ever get exposed to," said Universal Plastics President Joseph L. Peters.

In the past, he'd have 16-year-olds sweeping up and doing menial tasks. But his insurance carrier will no longer allow that. Everyone has to be 18.

Jason F. Randall, general manager at Grynn & Barrett, said they hire about 50 seasonal employees. The teens, about 15 of them, work in data entry, answering the phones, checking in customers or helping make wardrobe choices.

"We don't ask a lot of them," Randall said. "But we are selling our service. These are front-line jobs."